A language learners’ forum

Please answer how you feel now. (How should I have phrased the question to express that properly?)

I was just thinking earlier today about where I'm at. I've made Spanish and Greek a regular part of my daily life. This is a huge accomplishment compared to where I was say 5 years ago. I had almost given up on language learning at that time.

About 2 years ago at this time, I had just finished Assimil Spanish with Ease. I was trying to watch Netflix shows (dubbed and subtitled in Spanish). I found I was spending most of my time looking stuff up or pausing and switching between English and Spanish subtitles about every sentence. I'm now watching movies and shows and only having to pause it perhaps every minute or so. I can comfortably read many Spanish texts as long as there is not too much specialized vocabulary or jargon. I've not worked much on writing or speaking.

Ancient Greek is coming along well. I've been doing a lot of extensive reading and "targeted reading" (which is about halfway in between intensive and extensive reading). I'll pick some topic I'm struggling with and make that a point of focus when I'm reading. For example, if I catch myself getting frustrated with participles, I'll make sure I understand each participle I run into on a page. I'll be doing extensive reading except for participles. Usually after a few days to a week of this targeted reading, I find that weak spot is improved. I tend to mix extensive and targeted reading. Too much targeted reading seems to tire me out. This seems to have been working well. Whatever seems to slow me down the most while extensive reading gets addressed with targeted reading. I've found that I've internalized many aspects of Greek grammar doing this.

The bottom line is that I am happy with my progress compared to where I was 5 to 10 years ago. The combination of reading various posts on HTLAL and here along with various blogs and articles by polyglots has given me a foundation I can effectively use to learn new languages. I've made more progress learning Spanish (since I started in August 2015) that I ever had in any living language before. I've made more progress in Greek in the past 3 or 4 years than I had in the previous 25 to 30 years. If I knew more about what I was doing, I'd have made much more progress. But compared to where I was, I'm making progress and I enjoy it. I've also laid a good foundation for my next languages.

I selected neutral, because I look at my progress and think "with the amount of effort I have put in, this is the amount of progress I would expect". I would like to move to the happy range at some point.

I selected "very happy" , but I think it is because I'm a cheerful and optimistic person more than a real value judgement on my progress.

You're a cheerful bunch, aren't you?!

Quite happy! I get out what I put in, and even during long breaks, not much is lost.

Quite unhappy, I would say: first of all, i'm forced to talk to myself in case of German, and it obviously has it's downsides; then, I'd like more speaking and grammar practice in English, moreover, my Polish is almost unchanged since the last year, and finally, I'm generally unsatisfied with progress because I'm so over-ambitious.

I have been listening to the same handful of Spanish podcasts for a few months now, and the improvement in my comprehension is noticeable. For the slower podcasts (such as news), my comprehension is about 90%. I know it wasn't like that when I started, because if I was already that good, I wouldn't have focused on this so intently.

Quite happy. There have been no miracles, but I don't believe in miracles. Steady progress at a comfortable pace is good enough for me.

Very happy. It's most often our expectations that make us unhappy, in language-learning and life. I focus on what I can do, and in my languages, that's a lot- speaking, reading, writing, listening, reading in different scripts. I never thought I'd be able to do all that all those years ago when I started with Spanish.

I'll never be Pablo Neruda or Fernando Pessoa, but I love being able to enjoy the access to different worlds that my languages give me. It's one of the best gifts I ever gave myself.